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What’s up with cornerback Nate Clements? Here’s a guy who looked like he should have been cut in the exhibition season, to his Pro Bowl play in the last two games? Every time you ask Clements you get a different answer. He said last week that he works on techniques in exhibitions that wouldn’t bust out in the regular season. But on this week, Clements had a different take.

“You don’t have your packages in,” Clements said of preseason. He also said in preseason you don’t study your opponent and Clements, being a student of the game, depends a lot on that. And he said, “You just got to work through the funk. I have confidence in myself.”

Nate back to being great.

What’s up with Josh Morgan: Shut out in the last game, three catches on the season? No one’s complaining including Morgan, well, maybe just a little. “As long as we’re winning,” he said. He not only made crucial blocks on each of Frank Gore’s long touchdown runs Sunday, he blocking like a demon all day. “I was joking with (fullback) Moran Norris - ‘I’m making more blocks than you. I’m going to take your job.’” But how about some passes? “I’m open,” said Morgan, who hasn’t gotten any criticism on his route-running from coaches. “You can see it on the stills, I’m alone, standing right there next to the ref.” Morgan also said every receiver believes he’s open and he said he’s not about to point that out to Shaun Hill in the huddle. “He’s got enough to worry about. I’ve got to be patient and show some maturity.” Shaun Hill said, “I didn’t even notice Josh didn’t get a catch until after the game. He’s done a great job with his blocking. … Josh is going to get his opportunities.”

What’s up with Mike Singletary’s comments on Michael Crabtree. Singletary said he’ll never give up on Crabtree or come to a point where he doesn’t want him. “I’m not going to sit around and think about, “Well if he comes at this point in time, I’m going to say I don’t want you.’ I’m not going to do that.”

This is too soft and fuzzy and borders on appeasement. Shouldn’t Singletary be usinig his prodigious motivational and persuasive powers to get Crabtree in here?

That’s exactly what Singletary should say. If Crabtree does capitulate and come in, Crabtree will probably be, well, crabby. Why put up more barriers to coaching a guy who’s known as a loner and as someone who might be difficult to coach. Singletary sounds like a guy who wants an opportunity to coach him.

Responses: NoFear corrected me about the formation on the first touchdown run. The backs were heavy to the weakside, which set up the counter. Also, when Josh Morgan did come across cornerback Josh Wilson followed him and the counter action kept Wilson to the outside where Morgan could get the angle to wall him off. The counter worked well, so it will be interesting to see if the 49ers adjust and go with more zone runs and lead plays against the Vikings who will likely prepare for the counters.

I’m so easily goaded, and Marcos knows my weakness. He wrote that “In order to make a living these days, you have to have big interior linemen.” The team that’s had the best running game since 1995, and it’s not close, is Denver, which also had the smallest line in the league over that time. Before that, the 49ers had a good decade where they led the rest of the league in rushing and they also had the lightest line.

Certainly this weekend big interior linemen would seemingly help, because the Vikings have the two large Williams’s brothers at defensive tackle and a 4-3 front. But increasingly, teams are going more with 3-4, which necessitates smaller, quicker guards and centers who can get out on linebackers.

The 49ers own recent history is also telling. In 2006, when Frank Gore went for a team record 1,695 yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry, they had Larry Allen (325 pounds) and Justin Smiley (300) at guards (Smiley was listed at 311 but he always lost weight during the season and was typically under 300 by season’s end). Since then, they’ve replaced Smiley and Allen with bigger players in David Baas (330) and Chilo Rachal (315) and they dropped from 2,172 yards rushing in ’06 to 1,599 last season and shaved nearly a yard off their yards per carry average 4.9 to 4.0.

Getting down to the individual play level, Frank Gore gets 5 yards instead of 80 in his second touchdown run against the Seahawks because Joe Staley is an athletic and relatively trim 315-pound left tackle. If Staley were a ponderous 335 pounds, he wouldn’t have been quick enough to fire out and block linebacker David Hawthorne, which formed half of the large hole.

RANDOM NOTES: The 49ers used Morgan as a H-back, which set up the two long runs – they put him in motion and had him firing out on linebackers and defensive backs. … The week before they used Isaac Bruce in that role, but with the way the bigger Morgan got after it, he’ll likely stay as the H-back. … Historically, 65 percent of the teams that start 2-0 make the playoffs. … Looking at the defense, Nate Clements wasn’t responsible for any of T.J. Housmandzadeh’s four catches, they either were caught against a zone or another DB. Clements did give up two catches to Nate Burleson. Seattle quarterbacks threw to Burleson and Houshmanzadeh 19 times and only completed eight passes.